is it irrational to believe in divine healing?

When we get desperate, most of us would like to think that miracles are possible, that the incurable disease can be cured and those told they are beyond medical help can be healed. But is there any hope that miracles are really possible?

What evidence would it take for you to believe a miracle had occurred? Do you think it would make a difference if it happened to you?

the evidence

Recently I found an old book, The Miracles, by an experienced medical practitioner and researcher, H Richard Casdorph MD, PhD, who investigated in detail 10 apparent healing miracles. Dr Casdorph contacted the people who were apparently healed and obtained documentary information from their doctors, and submitted the evidence to a group of specialists for their review. Some of the X rays and scans are reproduced in the book. A brief summary of the case histories is at ten healing miracles

He concludes that the ten people really were healed, after prayer, from tumours, massive hemorrhage, heart disease and multiple sclerosis.

but can we seriously believe miracles occur today?

Many people believe that miracle stories are simply not credible – our scientific knowledge has shown them to be impossible. They believe the universe is a closed system and nothing exists outside it to interfere, so they cannot believe in a supernatural cause, and miracles are not possible. But if there could be a God (which is not something science can prove or disprove), then we are able to consider the possibility of miracles.

The evidence in this book is enough to make us think. Dr Casdorph was, and is, an experienced medical researcher with more than a hundred published research papers, he gathered before and after evidence from the case histories, and examined it himself as well as submitting it to recognised medical specialists. Unusual things happened, over and over again, after people were prayed for. The probability of ten spontaneous natural remissions is improbably low, and the documented evidence makes it equally improbable that the stories are untrue.

Thus I don’t think it is science which prevents our belief in miracles, but a belief that nothing exists beyond this natural world. I don’t think that’s a good assumption, and it’s certainly not one we can prove.

So it seems wise to keep an open mind.

not only .. .. but also .. ..

These are not the only well documented apparent healing miracles. Read also about a heart attack victim pronounced dead by a heart specialist after a skilled emergency team tried for 40 minutes to revive him, but the revived by one further application of the paddles after most of the team had left the emergency room and the heart specialist prayed for the man to be revived, in heart-starting action.

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